Amidst all the chaos COVID-19 is causing, discussion about the name of our nation turned into a hot trending topic when a Delhi based man filed a petition demanding the nation’s name to be changed to “BHARAT” instead of “INDIA” in the constitution. The petitioner, named Namah laid forward his stance under Article 1 of the Indian Constitution which clearly says masses should strive for getting over their colonial past and do whatever it takes for a substantial betterment which is believed to potentially invoke a sense of pride in the nation’s people. A series of tweets, re-tweets, and multiple posts went viral after the news came into light and people had their opinions put forward with the nearly equal majority on either side of the matter.
Well, a few did complain that the Supreme Court has other major issues to resolve in the current times of hardships and thus this shouldn’t be treated as an immediate case that demands to be discussed. But, the body acting as per its rules and guidelines of work ethics, decided to hold a meeting in order to resolve the matter. The bench was headed by Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde who rejected the plea by laying forthwith the reason being that the name “Bharat’ already was mentioned in the Constitution and thus didn’t demand any further changes.
A QUICK LOOK BACK IN HISTORY: Even in 1948, the Constituent Assembly, under Article 1 argued that the country should be named as “Bharat” or “Hindustan” with a huge majority of people in favor of the decision. But, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the father of our constitution, however, argued saying that the country was worldwide known with the name “India” and thus should continue being the same as that wouldn’t disrupt its international identity. Finally, a middle path was adopted to satisfy both sides of the debaters, and the line in Constitution very immaculately stated that “India that is Bharat shall be a union of states”.
The court had discussed a similar plea in the year 2016 which came off with an oral remark from the then Chief Justice of India, T.S. THAKUR which said every Indian has the right to choose between calling his country Bharat, Hindustan or India and the Supreme Court has no legal rights to deny an individual of that particular liberty. And now the nation stands with its name “INDIA” to be known as on international platforms without further complaints and grievances.
